· By Rachel Dazey
Rising Seas to Honey Bees
When asked to be one of the artists for an upcoming show at Ligget Studio in Tulsa, OK I knew I would be leaning into my relationship with the honey bee. The theme of the show is an exploration of our relationship with the changing climate.
Often on a summer evening you can find me sitting by a bee hive, feeling the wind from their wings on my face as they fly past approaching the entrance to their hive. I began my journey of beekeeping with the intention of raising pollinators to increase biodiversity and to help bees, stricken with the mysterious ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ that was causing bee hives across the nation to be abandoned. CCD was leaving crops unpollinated and beekeepers at their wits end trying to figure out why bees were dying in huge numbers.
The question of how to holistically raise bees in an increasingly toxic world is one that beekeepers are still grappling with. In my journey with bees I have learned much more from these thousands of ladies than I have helped solve any problem. A hive of 12,000 bees behaving as a single organism, efficiently building, gathering and caring for one another has much to teach our ego-driven species about cooperation, adapting to change, choosing healthy leadership and working efficiently. My pieces of the show are an exploration of the lessons I have learned from working with these fascinating creatures.
I’ll share a couple of the pieces here, but I would love to see you in person at the show if you can make it!
-Rachel Rose
From Rising Seas to Honey Bees
9 Oklahoma Artists exploring their relationship with the changing climate.
Opening Friday, April 8, 2022 5-8pm
On Display through May 6, 2022
Nectar Ring
14K White Gold, 14K Yellow Gold, 0.5 carat Lavender Sapphire, yellow and white natural diamonds
A single bee gathers nectar from 50-100 flowers on every foraging trip. That nectar is stored in a nectar sac, once the sac is full the bee will head back to the hive and give the nectar to another bee to store and process into honey. Every stage of honey production requires the bees to work together.
Sign of Life
14K Yellow Gold and Natural Diamond
When inspecting a hive in early spring to check on the health of a queen bee a beekeeper lifts the frame of honeycomb up into the sunshine and looks deep into the cell for a tiny white dot, the egg. If you see little white dots nicely patterned across the entire frame of comb you know that the queen is in good health and the hive should thrive in the upcoming season. The pattern of small little white dots can communicate the health of the queen and hive. The health of the eggs reflects the health of the queen. As above, so below.
How very interesting it is to learn this! It is a good lesson – like you mention – about living together and having a servant’s heart concerning others. And the little white dots (eggs) – possibly easy to miss in the hive – sounds like one has to be intentional about finding them. I just wonder how many times we feel like we are unproductive, or missing the mark in our productivity in a variety of areas of our lives…yet it is there….and in time the ‘eggs’ will be visible and the fruit of our labor will be evident.
Debbie Manchester on